材料期刊网

The density functional method with relativistic effective core potential has been employed to investigate systematically the geometrical structures, relative stabilities, growth-pattern behaviors, and electronic properties of small bimetallic M(2)Au(n) (M = Ag, Cu; n = 1-10) and pure gold Au(n) (n <= 12) clusters. The optimized geometries reveal that M(2) substituted Au(n+2) clusters and one Au atom capped M(2)Au(n-1) structures are dominant growth patterns of the stable alloyed M(2)Au(n) clusters. The calculated averaged atomic binding energies, fragmentation energies, and the second-order difference of energies as a function of the cluster size exhibit a pronounced even odd alternation phenomenon. The analytic results exhibit that the planar structure Ag(2)Au(4) and Cu(2)Au(2) isomers are the most stable geometries of Ag(2)Au(n) and Cu(2)Au(n) clusters, respectively. In addition, the HOMO-LUMO gaps, charge transfers, chemical hardnesses and polarizabilities have been analyzed and compared further.